Originally published at: http://appletalk.com.au/2016/09/tuesday-morning-news060916/
Ars Technica’s summary of what we’ll be seeing from Apple later this week includes a new iPhone and a new model of Apple Watch. They rate new Macs as an unlikely possibility, while iPads are much in the same boat. Software such as iOS 10 and macOS Sierra are expected to get release dates, if not outright releases at the event. Either way, I guess we’ll see in a few days.
A Vietnamese website claims it has used the new iPhone, saying the device features 4K video recording at 60 FPS and a SIM card tray that features a rubber seal. The rubber seal is presumably to aid the new iPhone’s rumoured water-resistance, with the site also saying that the new touch-sensitive home button still requires substantial force to activate. Without photos of the device, it’s hard to know how if the rumours are true or not.
A screenshot of an GeekBench report for a previously unknown iPhone model (the iPhone 9,3) suggests a 35% performance increase over the iPhone 6s. Note that GeekBench appears to mis-report the CPU speed due to iOS not reporting this directly to apps, and that the GeekBench benchmark only tests CPU and memory throughput.
Apple is no stranger to dongles. They currently offer 25 of short adapter cables, adapting Thunderbolt, Lightning, or even USB to other connection formats. What’s one more, when Apple releases a Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack adapter next Thursday?
Owen Williams says you can pry the headphone jack from his cold dead hands, although I believe his post on Medium is more about the fallacies of Bluetooth as an imperfect wireless connection standard, rather than the inherent inconvenience of a mechanical connection that means you have to plug something in.
I was looking forwarding to Bragi’s panicked announcement almost as much as I’m looking forward to Apple’s, but unfortunately Bragi’s turned out to be much more tame than I was expecting. The Bragi Headphone is a new set of truly wireless earbuds, ones which ditch the activity-monitoring features for a bit more battery life (and a lower price) compared to Bragi’s previous offering, the Dash.
There’s a story about an ex-Apple engineer (one who worked on porting OS X to Intel processors) applying for and being denied for a job as a Genius at an Apple Store, which is part of a wider piece about age discrimination in the American workforce on the New York Times.
IMore writes that watchOS 3 is a big roll in the right direction, and I’m inclined to agree. Some may lament the loss of glances, but glances were always the stepping stone to apps — and now that apps actually load within useful timeframes, glances are no longer needed.
Macworld has a few ideas on how Apple could turn its next social experiment into a good one. It remains to be seen whether iMessage integrations will be as popular as Apple expects, but I’m getting ahead of myself — iOS 10 isn’t even out yet.
The story of the greatest tool ever is the story behind the first Mac. It’s also about how earlier interactions with Steve Jobs at Newsweek led to somewhat poorer ones, when Time wanted to make their own iPad app.